25 Facts About Richard Varick

Richard Varick was a founder of the Society of the Cincinnati and the American Bible Society, and was a slaveholder.

Richard Varick was a longtime trustee of Columbia University, where he was chairman of the board from 1810 to 1816.

Richard Varick's maternal grandfather was a colonel in the Continental Army whose house, the Dey Mansion, which would go on to play a pivotal role in the American Revolution.

Richard Varick enrolled in King's College in New York City in 1771 where he studied under John Morin Scott.

Unusually, Richard Varick had not yet graduated from King's College despite having passed the bar and never formally graduated.

Later in his career, Richard Varick would become a trustee of King's College for over thirty years.

At the influence of his employer, John Morin Scott, Richard Varick suspended his studies and enlisted in the militia.

Schuyler, recognizing the burden Richard Varick was carrying, promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel.

Richard Varick faced run-ins with fellow officers who were not part of Schuyler's faction.

Richard Varick had been ill in bed when informed both of Arnold's treason and his own arrest.

Contemporary reports described Richard Varick as spending several days on the edge of madness about Arnold's defection.

Richard Varick served under Washington solely until Washington retired his commission in 1783.

The Richard Varick Transcripts are deposited in the Library of Congress.

In 1783 the Society of the Cincinnati was founded of which Richard Varick was an original member and president of the New York chapter from 1783 until his death in 1831.

Richard Varick would be responsible for maintaining the legacy of George Washington.

Richard Varick was the Recorder of New York City from 1784 to 1789.

Richard Varick was appointed the New York State Attorney General from 1788 to 1789.

Richard Varick would have to increase officers to protect the guilty parties from mobs gathering outside the prison.

In 1804, Richard Varick, who was out of office and politically unpopular in New York City, joined his friend Alexander Hamilton to create the Associates of the Jersey Company which would lay the groundwork for modern Jersey City through private development.

In 1816, Colonel Richard Varick purchased lots on the north side of Essex Street and built Prospect Hall overlooking the Hudson River.

Richard Varick would become the figurehead of the continuing development of Jersey City, inviting luminary friends such as Major General Marquis de Lafayette to visit while touring America in 1824 for special Fourth of July celebrations.

Richard Varick was a founder of the American Bible Society in 1816.

Richard Varick's father-in-law was the patrilineal great-great-grandfather of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

On February 15,2022, the Washington Post reported that Richard Varick is on the list of New York City mayors, composed by Sarah Cate Wolfson, a high school student in New York City, who owned slaves.

Richard Varick died on July 30,1831, at Prospect Hall and is interred at the First Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery in Hackensack, New Jersey.